World Music Pedagogy: An Introduction

Jui-Ching Wang (jcwang@niu.edu) 王瑞青School of Music, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL.

June 8 2012

Music education in a society• Educational settings

– Systematic (institutions)– Framed within a set of complex societal, artistic, and educational principles

• When music teachers (musicians) care enough to commit themselves to imparting musical techniques, repertoire, and meaning, music learning results.

• Good teachers know their music, and they understand the musical needs of their students.

• The making of music strongly reflects how it has been learned, and is informed by the particulars of its transmission—the– What– Who – Why– Where– How

WORLD MUSIC ACTIVITIES

•Tapping irregular rhythms (Turkish, Korean)•Balinese Marching Gamelan•Balinese KeCak (Monkey Chant)•Tari Saman (Thousand hands dance)•Listening to native American flute music (Kokopelli)

Walk Walk Walk Jump and stop

Are you ready?

Odd and Even…Here they come!

This is a very, very old traditional Turkish folk song which uses the 9/8 rhythm. It is a bit slower than most songs that are based on this rhythm.

It describes a person who is frustrated because time is passing by, and she/he is not yet married. The origin place of this song might be close to a river that overflows periodically because as suggested in the texts, when the river overflows it indicates that still more time has passed.

The word "Aman" itself doesn’t really mean anything—it’s an exclamation that is used when someone is frustrated.

Dere Geliyor (Turkish Folk Song)

Turkish Lyrics English Translation

Verse 1: Verse 1:

Dere geliyor dere, yalelel yalelel The river is overflowing,

Kumunu seresere, yalelellim. Spreading sand,

Al beni götür dere, yalelel yalelel O river, take me with you

Yarın olduğu yere, yalelellim. To where my beloved is.

   Chorus: Chorus:

Amanın aman aman O mercy,

Zamanın zaman zaman O time,

Bizim dügüne zaman yalelellim. When will our wedding be?

(Repeat above 3 lines) (Repeat above 3 lines)

Samai

I’qa Samai is commonly used for Classical Arabic love songs and also with the Samai instrumental form.

Chang gu drum• This major percussion

instrument is used for both folk and court music.

• Right-hand skin is played with a stick; left-hand skin, with the hand.

• In many outdoor folk dances, a heavier bamboo stick is used on the right and a mallet with a wooden ball on the left.

Drum accompaniment for Arirang

About the songArirang is one of the most well-known Korean folk songs. The Arirang Gorge in the text is an imaginary rendezvous of lovers in dreamland, although there is a real mountain pass called “Arirang Gorge,” outside the small East Gate of Seoul. The tune is melancholy and gained great fame after a silent film of the same title was produced by Na Un-Gyu in 1926. It became a symbol of the struggle for independence against Japanese colonization (1910-1945). Text TranslationArirang, Arirang, Arariyo. Arirang Pass is the long road you go.If you leave and forsake me. Before you have gone three miles, you will be lame.

Gamelan Bebonangan/Beleganjur (marching gamelan)

• The marching gamelan consists of the gong, cymbals, and drum players.

• Nearly every ceremony calls for a procession often more than one. – E.g., cremation or temple festivals (the annual temple

ceremonies).• Instrumentation:

– Various sizes of gongs, cymbals, and drums.– Most of the instruments play in interlocking patterns.

Marching gamelan tune

Beat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Kettle 5 x x xKettle 3 x xKettle 2 x x xKettle 1 xGong x xCymbal 1 xo xo xo xoCymbal 2 xo xo xo xoDrum X X X X ox ox ox ox

This is based on the pentatonic scale , Do, Re, Mi, Sol or Ding Dong Deng Dung, the Balinese solfegee.

Gamelan beleganjur contest performance, Bali, Indonesia, 2005 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28-5r9-BdwQ

WHY?WORLD MUSIC IN SCHOOLS?

World music pedagogy• Why?– Changing demographics, societal forces, and

multicultural mandates have begun to turn educators toward viewing their educational missions in more inclusive terms, and to searching for a wider variety of musical sources for their teaching repertoire.

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6mr12zroxA

– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oumVHSj6AE8&feature=related

World music pedagogy, cont’d• Who and What?

– Ethnomusicologists• Study music in culture and music as culture, including the art, traditional,

tribal, and popular musical cultures of nearby neighborhoods as well as those of remote

• Teach music from perspectives in anthropological theory, musical and cultural analyses

– Music educators (music teachers at K-12 and college levels)• Study educational/psychological rationales of teaching and learning music,

teaching methods, curriculum design, etc.• Teach music (primarily and traditionally Western/European art music

tradition)– The two streams of music professionals have accomplished much in their

specialized work, and prospects for the crossing of their areas of expertise are rich with possibilities for the phenomenon of world music pedagogy.

– Dr. Patricia Campbell (the University of Washington, School of Music, Seattle, WA, USA)

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• How– How music is taught/transmitted and

received/learned within cultures– How the processes included in significant musical

practices within these cultures can be preserved or at least partially retained in classrooms and rehearsal halls.

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• How, cont’d– Music can be best understood through experience

with the manner in which it is taught and learned.– Ethnomusicologists and music educators have

worked to blend the expertise and insights of the two into a pedagogical system that is sensitive to transmission systems within the culture.

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• How, cont’d– E.g.: they are conscious of and pay tribute in their

teaching to other notational systems, oral/aural techniques, improvisatory methods that may be integral to a style, and even what customary behaviors precede and immediately follow lessons and sessions within particular traditions.

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• How, cont’d– Understanding of musical pieces through deep

and continued • Listening• Participatory• Performance• Creative experience• Study of its cultural context and meaning

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• How, cont’d– The study of music and culture, with culture

interpreted as both old (original culture of the music) and new (instructional culture), is the essence of world music pedagogy.

– The “how” of world music pedagogy requires bridging the two cultures.

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• How, cont’d– Ethnomusicology• Continue to develop its scholarly courses through

interdisciplinary themes and theoretical analyses to understand music as human expression.

– Music Education• Continue to develop instruction to guide learners of all

ages in knowing music for its composite aesthetic, expressive, and historical-cultural aims.

World music pedagogy, cont’d

• Current trend: – the blending of expert and committed scholars,

musicians, and teachers forge their collective interests into a scholarship of teaching that is reflective of the available knowledge on music, culture, and instructional/learning processes.

Learning stylesA multi-sensory learning experience: – the aural, visual, and kinesthetic capacities– students listen, observe, and imitate the teacher

or master musician in lessons and sessions.– as they listen to the performance of the masters,

they watch and finally become active themselves in the kinesthetic process of performance.

– musicians around the world carefully exercise their aural capacities as they develop their technical skills to their maximum potential.

Learning styles, cont’d• Students in the classroom• How did you learn?• How will you teach?• Two styles:

– Teacher-centered– Student-centered

• A better way to teach music…– Students at all levels learn well by listening– Lowell Mason: Teach “sound before symbol.”– Students learn music best by observing musical practice, listening to

it, and then attempting to imitate it.– …step-by-step musical performance and participation experiences

for students are more directly the point of their musical learning.

Learning styles, cont’d• Music– as music, the aural art, and certain avenue of

self-expression, – can be best understood by knowing its

structures and meanings through live and recorded sources.

• Listening – attentive and focused – can help develop thoughtful music-making

experiences to aurally-informed performances.

Learning styles, cont’d

• Students in the classroom• How did you learn?• Activity:– Learn to sing traditional Balinese KeCak (monkey

chant).– Describe the strategies undertaken in doing so.

Discuss whether there are occasions for learning music through notation or aural/oral means, and what benefits and deficits there are to either way.

Oral/aural techniques• Two important components in an oral transmission:– Teacher’s facilitation of sound sources– Students’ aural perception

• Whether the music to be taught and learned is preserved in notation or not, oral and aural means remain central to the discovery of essential features of a song or an instrumental piece.

Oral/aural techniques, cont’d

• Notation – Enhances listening experiences– Provides a graphic map to melodic and rhythmic components – However, attention to the musical sound itself is the surest way

to knowing music analytically and for its performance possibilities, for example:• Tempo rubato• Expression• Phrasing

Oral/aural techniques, cont’d

• Teacher-Student Practice = Modeling-and-imitation strategy– The expert or master musician-teacher sings or plays

a musical section with the intent of demonstrating to the student not only rhythm and/or melody but every intricate expressive element that cannot be fully captured in notation.

Oral/aural techniques, cont’d

• How about in a public school classroom?– Look for other musical sources and resources – Cultural bearers, musicians living and working in the community, are

contracted as teachers of musical diversity.– Recordings: models of musical sounds can be played repeatedly

allowing learners with multiple chances to master one phrase after the other

– Video-recordings• Even better models of some traditions where the visuals may

underscore and complement the aural information, or when movement is integral to the music

Oral/aural techniques, cont’d• An experience of musicking– The goal of performance is to help students understand

the music through listening analysis– E.g. singing and rhythmically chanting musical phrases

and patterns draw students immediately into the musical center of a work.

– Teachers can utilize oral/aural strategies with considerable frequency to engage students in participatory experiences, knowing that the greater the participation of the students, the more deeply their musical understanding may be.

Oral/aural techniques, cont’d

• An experience of musicking– The goal of performance is to help students understand

the music through listening analysis– E.g. singing and rhythmically chanting musical phrases

and patterns draw students immediately into the musical center of a work.

– Teachers can utilize oral/aural strategies with considerable frequency to engage students in participatory experiences, knowing that the greater the participation of the students, the more deeply their musical understanding may be.

Functions of Music• Emotional expression• Aesthetic enjoyment• Entertainment• Communication• Physical response• Enforcement of conforming to social norms

– Music is used to provide instructions or warnings (adult initiated)• Validation of religious rituals• Continuity and stability of culture

– Linking them to their cultural heritage and reflecting the values of their ethnic culture

• Integration of society– Brings children together and unites them within a society

Learning

• Enculturative, natural and without formal instruction

• Partly guided • Highly structured and sequential in process

Music at school because…• Every student, regardless of family resources,

deserves a chance to participate in music • Musicking– the ways students experience music– Doing– Integrating

• Combining more than a single means of experiencing music– Singing– Moving– Playing– Listening– Playing with music (play helps them develop

understanding)